Nice Beard
by CloveisDivergent
Summary: Seneca Crane, Head Gamemaker of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, has found himself drooling over District 2's very own, Clove. Clove has feelings for him too, we all know she does. But their love would never be accepted by the Capitol, nor anyone else. So how will their love survive? What if Clove dies in the Games? What if somone finds out and both are slaughtered for their actions?
1. Chapter 1

Gucci leads us into the main lobby of our the Tribute apartments directly after the parade. All the Tributes are here, most of them suffering in their ridiculous outfits. Luckily, Cato and I weren't cursed with two pyscho stylists, so we look somewhat normal and we are, for the most part, comfortable.

Enobaria is speaking to us now, but I can't hear her due to all the noise, so I just pretend to listen. Suddenly, an extremely loud noise catches the attention of everyone in the lobby, from what I can see, it looks as though an Avox girl dropped something...

Now, I feel someones hand on my shoulder, they grasp it gently and lead me out of the lobby. It's happening so fast that I don't have time to pull away or even yell for help, plus my mind is fuzzy, I don't really know why... And no one can see because their attention is elsewhere.

The person quickly leads me outside. I really am scared, but what can I do about it? The walls of the apartment complex are thick, so if I scream no one is gunna hear me. I won't run, Brutus told me never to do that. I guess I'm stuck... And I still don't know who it is.

So now we are both just here, in front of the Avenue of Tributes. I somehow conjure up enough courage to turn around and face them. Their identity suprises me... A lot..

Seneca Crane. The head Gamemaker.

I look up at him, with what I guess must've been curious eyes, an ashamed look takes his face.

"I- I didn't mean to frighten you, Clove. I just wanted to congradulate you on your performance at the parade..." He says.

What performance? I stood in a little wheely-cart while some horses pulled me around... "Thank you Mr. Crane, but I should really go now, my mentors are probably looking for me." I rub the back of my neck sheepishly. At this point, I really just want to leave.

"Yes, I understand," he nods, "thank you for your time."

"Yeah.. No problem, Mr. Crane." I give him a small smile and start to walk back to the lobby.

Right before I reach the door he calls out to me, "Clove?"

I stop walking, "Yeah?"

"Call me Seneca. Also, can you meet me for breakfast tommorow on the ground floor? I can wait for you in the main lobby."

I'm taken aback by his offer, what the hell is the head Gamemaker doing inviting me to breakfast? I'd never even talked to him before tonight and now this... I nod slowly. "Sure. What time?"

"Is 8:30 alright?" he asks quietly.

"Okay. See you then." I wave and proceed to the lobby as quickly as possible. That was extremely awkward. In fact, it was so awkward that it hurt. I'm literally hurting right now, but soon I find that it's because my mentors have just mentally murdered me 700 times. Their glares are quite scary. I approach them catiously.

"Um... Why the..." I scrunch up my face, attempting to resemble theirs.

"Where were you?" They demand.

I panic for a second, should I tell them?

Nah.

"I was outside, taking a walk," I lie.

Their faces relax a bit, "Okay, tell us next time alright kid?" Brutus asks.

I nod, "Well... Bye." I wave and book it to the elevator.

Ten minutes later I'm in bed, asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

I wake up at 7:30 the next morning, I quickly get up, take a shower, and get dressed. By the time I'm done, it's time to go.

As quietly as I can, I walk out to the elevator, Gucci, Brutus, Eno, and Cato would kill me if they knew about this, but they would probably be angrier if I woke them up. I take the elevator down to the ground floor and walk to the lobby.

Guess who's there waiting? I hardly recognize him. His clothes and hair are entirely different. He isn't wearing ridiculous Capitol clothes, just tan shorts and a light blue t-shirt. And his hair is spiked up instead of combed back. I have to use all my will power to avoid staring.

His face lights up when he sees me, "Good morning."

"Morning." I reply quietly.

"Ready?" he asks, holding his arm out to me.

"Mhm," I take his arm carefully. NOW, this is weird. Very weird. I'm 15. Seneca must be at least 20. 20! That's 5 whopping years! I think it might be illegal to be comepletely honest. I shouldn't be here... But Seneca is really good looking... Five years... And he seems to have a nice personality... Five years... I think I'll stay... Five years... But this could be seen as extremely inappropriate... Five years, Clove. Five stinking years.

While I was argueing with myself, apparently we reached the dining room. Seneca hold a chair out for me. I sit down, he sits next to me and he's awfully close. I find myself staring at his beard, it's amazing, all swirly and such. I pull my gaze away when I realize how creepy I must seem. Now it's silent.

He breaks it, "So Clove... Tell me a bit about yourself."

I sigh, almost completely ignoring his request, "Seneca, Mr. Crane, Mr. Head Gamemaker sir, why did you ask me here?"

I shifts in his seat, "Well..." he stops.

"Tell me, now, or I'll leave." I start to get up.

"No, please don't go," I sit back down, "Are you sure you want to know?"

I nod.

He exhales heavily, "Alright..." He rubs his temple slighty, basically saying, _'Give me a minute.'_

I wait patiently.

"So... When you first arrived here... I saw you... And it's just.. Hard to explain.. But to put it simply... I like you, Clove. I like you a lot." He looks as me, waiting for a response.

I just sit there for a while, taking it in. How am I supposed to respond to that? So I reply as honestly as I can, "I don't understand how you can like someone when you don't know them... I'm flattered, I really am, but there's the whole age difference thing... And... Yeah.."

"You don't remember, do you?" he asks.

"Remember what?"

"I didn't expect you to, but we grew up together Clove. I know you."

I laugh, "No we didn't, I didn't know any Seneca's before I came here."

"My name wasn't always Seneca. They made me change it, in order to move to the Capitol. I swear, Clove, I used to live in District 2. We were neighbors for eight years.."

"What was your name before?"

"Blu," he replies shorty.

And now the memories come flooding in. Blu was the boy I had a crush on in grade school... And I did grow up with him, but he didn't look anything like Blu. Then it hits me.

It's the beard.

I nod slowly, impying that I now understand. What are the odds of THIS happening?

Twenty minutes later we've finished eating and we're walking around the apartment complex. During breakfast we talked and now I know that Seneca is Blu. Same personality, same laugh, he hasn't changed very much.

"I'd like to do this again," he says softly.

"So would I... But no one can know about it, okay?"

"Why is that?" he asks.

"Sen, you're 22. I'm 15. Do you know how much trouble I would get in? How much trouble WE could get in?"

"Good point," he sighs, "How about tommorow night?"

"Fine. But it has to be when everyone has gone to bed."

He nods, then looks at his watch, "You're training class begins in 10 minutes."

"Okay... I'll see you tommorow night then?"

"Yeah," he quickly leans down and kisses my cheek.

I feel my face turn bright red as I turn around and start walking back to the apartment complex.

On the way there, I think about everything that's happened. I realize it's wrong what we are doing. We shouldn't see each other again. Seven stinking years.

It's all so wrong.

But...

I kind of like it.


	3. Chapter 3

Seneca and I have met up three times now and if things go right, we'll be meeting again tonight. Since he is the Head Gamemaker, he has a LOT of money and has privledges that other Capitol citizens could never ever dream of having, so we can pretty much do whatever we want. We mostly just talk, I'm not a big fan of going out to eat, so we avoid that. But with Sen, everything seems so perfect to me. I start thinking that life could get good again for me, but then the realization of where I'll be in just five days returns and I'm thrown back to square one.

When we're a good distance away from the apartment complex, he takes my and and locks our fingers. I smile at him and keep walking.

"So, where would you like to go tonight, Miss Sevina?" he asks.

I shrug, "I have no clue, I don't know this place like you do, the city is yours after all." I laugh quietly.

He laughs too, "It's actually Snow's city, but that old man doesn't care for it as much as I do."

"How could he? Snow is vial, hateful, and can't see what's real. You're everything he isn't, which makes sense because he's all the bad things."

"I don't know about that," he stops and looks at his feet, seeming somewhat ashamed, almost as if he's done worse than Snow. He eventually looks up again and speaks softly, "I know where we could go. I think you'll like it a lot." He tries to smile, but I can see that he's having trouble.

I just nod, neither of us speak again for quite some time. While the silence seeps in, seperating us, I deciede to take in my surroundings. We've walked about a mile away from the complex and we're now in what seems to be a outdoor mall type thingy. Small shops lining the walls, taking up most of the room, there is only a small amount of room left for walking, but it's perfect for the two of us.

After around fifteen minutes of silence, we reach the place where Sen wanted to take me. It's a small courtyard, every wall covered in bright green vines, beautiful flowers everywhere, and a huge fountain right at it's center. It's amazing, it really is, but I can't enjoy myself if Sen won't talk, so I need to force him to.

I sigh and walk towards a bench, dragging Seneca behind me. We sit down and I look at him, he's looking at the fountain, paying no attention to me. I frown and move a little closer to him. Still nothing. I move even closer. Nothing. Closer. Nothing. I'm practically in his lap now and still nothing. I groan and put his face in my hands, slowly turning his head to me. To my suprise, I see his eyes are filled with tears, it's not hard to guess why they're there. In a few days, Seneca might just be the triggerman of the canon that ends my life forever. He could be my cause of death, which would be devistating for him, how is letting another person do it any easier. Seneca is basically stuck. The other option is me winning the Games and we both know that that won't happen.

He tries to look away, but I keep his head steady in my hands. "Sen..." He puts his hands over mine and looks directly into my eyes, which are unreadable. Now he just stares at me, making me feel extrememly uncomfortable, but I can't help but stare back, his eyes are like a 1,000,000 piece puzzle.

While being transfixed by his eyes, I failed to notice his hand, which is now under my left thigh, pulling me closer to him. Around him actually, normally I would moved his hand or resist being moved, but I'm too locked in his gaze. Only seconds have passed, but it seems like it's been ages.

Now it's just me, completely surrendered to him, unable to move away, unable to speak, unable to breathe...

All my thoughts cloud my brain, making me somewhat dizzy, his face seems to be getting farther and farther away from mine. But Seneca pulls me back, he wraps his arms around my waist and brings me directly against him. We're now breathing each others air, but I can't take it anymore, apparently he can't either...

He slowly leans in and lightly pressed his lips against mine, adding a little pressure as each second ticks by.

And I don't hesistate to kiss him back one bit.


	4. Chapter 4

Seneca pulls away all to quickly, but apparently we were kissing for quite a while because it's dark now. In other words, time to go back to the apartment complex. I frown as he lifts me up, assuming that he'll set me down and we'll walk back, but he doesn't set me down, instead he carries me; bridal style. I laugh quietly as he walks out of the courtyard, he looks down at me, smiling softly.

"This was nice, Sen, thank you" I say quietly.

"Don't thank me," he leans down and kisses my nose, making my face turn slightly red. "Now, we'll need to think of an excuse for your absence."

I nod slowly, trying to think of something I could say to Enobaria, Brutus, or Gucci if they asked. When I come up with nothing, I sigh, shaking my head slowly, "I can't think of anything."

"Hmm..." he pauses, "We could say that you were at the training center. Nobody would argue, that's ususally where you would be, correct?"

"Yes, but what if Cato was down there and didn't see me?" I ask.

"Just tell him that he needs to be more observant. If he couldn't see the most beautiful girl in all of Panem across the room, he's obviously blind."

I feel the blood rush to my cheeks, so I bury my face in his shirt. "I'm not beautiful," I mumble.

Seneca just laughs, "Oh yes you are."

"Nooooo."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes."

I now realize that winning this arguement is clearly impossible and there is no use in pressing any further. "Fine," I say, sounding clearly disaapointed in my loss.

"Someone's grumpy," he chimes.

I frown, "I'm not grumpy. I'm just tired."

"Then we'd better get you to Floor 2!" He winks at me and starts sprinting in the general direction of the apartments.

I scream and cling onto him as tightly as I can, shutting my eyes, and hiding my face in his shirt. Any Capitol ciziten who witnessed this scene would probably think I was being kidnapped, but they took no actions other than gawking like idiots.

Finally, Seneca stops running, stops moving actually. I pull away from his chest and look up at him, he's staring at something in front of us. I slowly turn my head to see what's caught Sen's attention. I immediately find myself caught in the hateful gaze of none other than President Snow.


	5. Chapter 5

I literally feel as if Snow is looking straight into my soul as he continues to stare at me. The president's eyes snap away from mine as Seneca clears his throat. Sen sets me down, so I'm on my feet and moves me beside him.

Snow speaks with an frighteningly cheerful tone, "Well, well, well, Mr. Crane. What do we have here?" He tilts his head, looking at me sideways.

I see Seneca tense up next to me, I can't help but wonder how he'll respond. "We were just taking a walk, sir. Miss Sevina looked troubled and looked as if she need attention," he says smoothly.

"Oh, I see," Snow says, obviously not buying it. "Is that true, Miss Sevina?"

I feel myself freeze up, but relax as I feel Seneca gently stroking my palm. "Yes, sir. Given my situation, I feel as though I have the right to be troubled."

"That you do," Snow nods, sounding defeated. I begin to smile, but the president begins speaking again and it dissapears, "Are you injured?" he asks, with an odd tone of voice.

I shake my head.

"Then explain to me why, exactly, was Mr. Crane carrying you and why you two had the looks of an about-to-be married couple on your faces."

I won't deny it, Snow puts up a good arguement. I don't think we can blanket a lie over that one. And to add to the trouble, I become extrememly nervous. When I'm nervous, I tend to blurt out just about every thought I have at that moment. I like to call this, 'word vomit.'

It's uncontrollable.

And here it begins.

"While we were on the walk, I started getting... Uh... Cramps... Yes, cramps! And then my shins stated to ache, so Mr. Crane offered to carry me and I accepted. Also, we looked happy because we heard that there was cake in the main hall!" I blurt out quickly.

Snow seems taken aback by what he's just heard, he doesn't respond for a few moments. "Oh. Well, it seems as though I have issues to solve, elesewhere." He bows his head, basically saying goodbye, then he turns and walks away.

I honestly want to kiss my word vomit right now.

We wait until Snow is out of sight and then we continue walking back to the apartments. Seneca looks down at me, while walking, "Did you really have cramps?" he asks quietly.

I laugh, "No!"

He sighs, "Oh good."

I smile up at him. He looks around us, making sure there is no one near us, then he leans down and kisses me gently. I don't kiss him back because I know that if I do, we'll be here a while.

He pulls away, "I've just thought of something. It would allow us to spend more time together, considering the fact that we'll be separated for a while. But I'm not sure if you'll like it or not."

"Just tell me! I'll do anything to spend more time with you before I leave..."

He nods, "Okay, so I was thinking that maybe you'd like to spend a couple of nights at my place. You could stay here during the day; train, socialize, whatever and at night you could spend some time with me."

"Socialize?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Isn't that what teenage girls do?"

I laugh, "Not me."

"Oh, okay. Then no socializing for you. But what do you think?" He looks at me, with a hint of hope in his eyes.

"I think it's a good idea, but we'll have to be very secretive."

Sen nods again, slowly wrapping his arms around me. He leans down and whispers in my ear, "Starting tonight?"

A smile breaks across my lips as I whisper back, "If you insist."


	6. Chapter 6

After I had gathered everything I need for the night from my room, I meet Seneca by the front entrance of the complex.

"Are you tired," he asks quietly.

"Yeah, I was training nearly all day..." I trail off into a yawn.

Sen laughs and then scoops me up in his arms. "You can sleep on the train if you'd like."

I would question the word 'train' but I'm way too tired, I bury my face in his chest and mumble some unintelligable words in his shirt.

The train station is a ten minute car ride from the apartment complex, so I end up staying awake. He puts on an old CD and it plays quietly. I recognize it all too well.

Ke$ha.

Ke$ha was a very popular artist, like, 100 years ago, and being my age I shouldn't recognize her music. Come to think of it, neither should Seneca, but his face lights up when he sees me looking at him.

"You know it?"

I laugh, "Yeah, my mom used to play it all the time."

"So did mine," he laughs too.

At this point I have to use every bit of energy I have left lft to keep my mouth shut and not belt out the song. But it's so catchy...

I nearly jump out the sun-roof when Sen starts singing, er, yelling in a singish way. "MAYBE I JUST NEED SOME REHAB, OR MAYBE JUST NEED SOME SLEEP, I'VE GOT A SICK OBSSESION, I'M SEEING IT IN MY DREAMS. I'M LOOKING DOWN EVERY ALLEY, I'M MAKING THOSE DESPERATE CALLS, I'M STAYING UP ALL NIGHT HOPING, HIT MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALLS." He looks at me immediately, obviously hoping that I'll sing my part because if he sings it, it won't sound right.

I half sing, half laugh my way through it, "WHAT YOU GOT BOY IS HARD TO FIND, I THINK ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME, I'M ALL STRUNG UP MY HEART IS FRIED, I JUST CAN'T GET YOU OFF MY MIND."

Now we're both singing/laughing, "BECAUSE YOUR LOVE, YOUR LOVE, YOUR LOVE, IS MY DRUG YOUR LOVE YOUR LOVE YOUR LOVE, I SAID YOUR LOVE, YOUR LOVE, YOUR LOVE, IS MY DRUG YOUR LOVE YOUR LOVE YOUR LOVE."

By now, our voice are almost gone, eventhough we didn't sing very much, so we stop simultaneously. We look at each other and immediately burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter.

We end up singing the rest of the song and the two tracks after it. When we reach the train, Seneca takes my hand and pulls me inside. We sit down in the back and the train glides out of the station smoothly. I end up falling asleep.

Seneca wakes me up when we've reached his house, or the sky walk that leads to his house. It isn't even a house... It's like a hotel.

"Is that _all_ yours?" I ask.

He nods, "I only use the top floor though, it's just nice to have the other fourteen floors." Sen takes my hand again and walks to the front door. He holds his arms out in front of him, looking at me, "What's mine is yours."


End file.
